Not Like This
by Stephy Skittles
Summary: SPOILERS: Wikus remembers the Prawn he killed at MNU. Christopher remembers the bodies when he realized the truth. They both remember the non-human who printed herself into their memories. Christopher/OC. Rated M for language and violence.
1. Not Like This

**CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM MOVIE**

**Now that I have that out of the way, I figured I should write this down while the movie was still fresh in my head. Now, please, don't spam if I got some dialogue or some scenes wrong. I watched the movie 3 days prior to publishing this, and my memory is fuzzy. Also, I don't want to have to rewatch the movie online just to get dialogue correct.**

**Christopher/OC. Rated M for language, violence and sexual themes.**

**District 9 belongs to Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson**

* * *

Gunshots cracked through the sky. Such strange weapons, firing tiny chunks of metal at enemies. Of course, our weapons were much more advanced, but I hadn't seen one in over 20 years. Wretched insects took them all away, threatening us with _their_ guns.

Humans. Such disgusting creatures, and yet they have the nerve to call us "prawns"? Bottom feeders? Bah. And the naming! The labeling of our kind, registering us and giving us human names. Christopher Johnson. Lydia Hammonds. Human names for humans with different genders. Yes, some of us non-humans tend to be born smaller and less physically fit that others, but female humans are needed for reproduction. Our superior species is past that as we are completely selfsufficient. As well, from what I've seen of the females who are sold for interspecies protistution, they have no self-respect, whereas I do.

More gunshots could be heard closer to my position, and I knew that the human gangs were doing their regular, murderous patrol through District 9. It would become harder to navigate to my comrade's shack, so I had to move now. Ducking behind piles of rubble, running swiftly between shacks, I made my way to Christopher's home.

I knocked on the door in our secret pattern: two knocks. Pause. Then three rapid knocks. Christopher's young one opened the door. It looked up at me and tilted it's head curiously.

"Here, young one. Take this and go play outside. Let me talk to your father." I handed him a small bicycle tire I had found at a trash site. It was disgusting how the humans dropped their waste in our area, but most of our kind found many treasures and entertainment in the trash.

"Thank you, friend!" clicked the happy young one. He walked out the door, sat down and started gnawing on the tire.

I looked outside and inside the shack to double-check nobody was watching me. After securing the area, I opened the secret door to the room was where Christopher, his friend and I were making the fuel to go back to the mothership.

"Christopher?" I found both of them peering over our work, our hard work from 20 years of patience and sneaking behind the humans.

They both looked up, and Christopher stared at me expectantly. "Did you find any?"

"Yes," I clicked smugly. Christopher embraced me warmly before taking the canister from my claws. I shuddered and was very shocked. "Have you adopted a human method of showing affection, now?"

"I apologize if it upset you. It's helpful to showing exactly how grateful I am beyond using words." He and his friend opened it carefully and poured it into the main canister we would use for the fuel.

"There's no need for a physical "thank you". Words are enough." I looked back at Christopher. "But it was hard to get this back from a human. He took it, knowing it was valuable. I killed him and had some others help me dispose of the remains."

Christopher froze. "You killed him? Lydia, as much as most of us want to do that, the humans have made it clear that such a crime is punishable by death." He walked closer and stopped only a few inches away from me. "We need you to be alive to be of use to us."

"Well, consider it my own way as slowly avenging the deaths of my offspring, one human at a time," I looked off into the distance, distinctly remembering the cracking and popping of the eggs as the humans set them on fire. _"You don't have a license for these eggs, Lydia. As humans, we have a responsibility to keep your population in check. We are doing this for the sake of you prawns." _

I was knocked out of my flashback as Christopher seized his claws around my throat. He was taller than I was, and soon my feet could no longer touch the floor. "No killing humans. I can't risk you getting captured and taken away."

I remained silent, and Christopher eventually let go. "We need more fluid. Soon... soon we'll have enough."

"I'll go look for some more," I clicked quietly, and headed out the door.

I felt Christopher grab me and stop me in my tracks. "You're one of the last of the leadership caste. The others don't know how to work the machinery as well as we do, or know how to interact with humans in a way that won't get you killed. Don't lose sight of our goal. We need to go home."

I put my claws gently on his shoulders. "I will be careful. I always am."

"Please, Lydia, don't be reckless. Something doesn't feel right."

"Why are you so out of character today, Christopher?" I asked. "I told you I'll be fine. I'm only going back to find more fluid. Besides, I wouldn't risk getting caught if I knew that going home is within our grasp."

"Lydia..."

I patted his chest playfully. "What I wouldn't give to see the 7 moons of our planet once more..." I clicked distantly. We both knew watching the moons back home was one of my favourite past times.

Deciding it was time to go, I turned out the door, only to have something obstructing my way. The young one stood near my feet and looked up at me. "Next time you come back, will you bring me some more treats?"

Christopher clicked disapprovingly. "Come inside, and don't bother Lydia. She has work to do."

I knelt down to eye level with the young one. "Yes, next time I come back, not only will I bring another tire, I'll have more fluid, and we'll finally have enough to go back up to the mothership."

"Next time you come back, we can go home?"

"Yes, next time."

He clicked happily, reached up and held my claw in his. "Then hurry back, friend!" He ran off into the shack.

Christopher stood in the doorway. He started to say something, but then stopped and went back inside. I myself went on my way to my own shack to, as the humans said, "call it a night". It was getting dark, and the curfew would be in effect. There would be no point in looking for more fluid if I got arrested. I would keep my promise to Christopher and not be reckless.

--------------------

"Are you Lydia Hammonds?"

I looked up from the plastic bottle I was inspecting. "Yes, I am. How may I help you fine humans today?" I believe the sweet talk was necessary because of the 10 humans that had approached me, 9 of them wielded weapons. The one who didn't have one had a bullet-proof vest and was talking to me.

He brought out a large set of claw-cuffs that were made specifically for arresting and detaining non-humans. "You are under arrest for the murder of a so-far unidentified human."

I was alarmed, but I knew I had to act calmly and settle this without violence. Obviously, I could not afford to have bullets tearing through me if I wanted to see our home planet again.

I raised my claws slowly in a defensive manner and responded very slowly. "You must be mistaken," I clicked. "I haven't harmed or have been in contact with any humans in the past 24 hours."

"Can you describe any activities or routines you carried out yesterday then? Were you with anyone yesterday?"

"No, I wasn't. I am more solitary than others." I had to say this. I knew fully well that involving Christopher in this predicament would only lead to his arrest simply because he was associated with me. I could never imagine putting him in danger. "As for activities, I went to the trash heaps to look for entertaining objects, like all other prawns. When I didn't find anything, I went back to my shack and stayed there for the rest of the day."

Other non-humans were gathering around, wondering what the commotion was. I wish I could tell them to leave, but that wouldn't be possible in the current situation. The humans briefly talked amongst themselves, which gave me the opportunity to look around.

In the crowd of the gathering prawns, I saw Christopher's friend, the one who was helping us gather fluid. He took a step towards me from the ring of spectators, as if he was going to try to help.

Don't help me. Don't make a move. Don't ask others to help. Don't run away or do anything to look suspicious. Don't tell Christopher. Don't tell his young one. Don't involve them. I can handle this.

I tried to portray all of these commands in a slow headshake. I hoped that our friend at least understood some of them, but no doubt he would go tell Christopher. I could only pray that he wouldn't take any risky actions to aid me. It would not do any good for anyone. However, he's smarter than most non-humans, and he always knows the best course of action.

A human shot his gun into the air, and the deafening crack scattered the prawn crowd to go hide somewhere safe. Alone again, the human cleared his throat and pulled out a pocket device with a screen on it. "Is this you?" He pressed it, and footage of me killing the human from yesterday started to play.

"You are mistaken. The prawn in this video looks like me, but I would never harm a human." The part of the video depicting when I beheaded the human scrolled by.

"Nice try, Lydia, but we have your record. You've been hostile towards humans before-"

"Hostile, but never harmful."

"-and you've been charged for having unregistered eggs and being out after curfew. With all things said and done, we believe you may have plans for starting a rebellion."

"_This is not good. Why can't these fucking humans just leave?" _I thought sourly. "Please, I know you are misguided. I haven't done anything wrong." I backed up slowly, but alas, I bumped into a shack that stopped me from going anywhere.

"You can't get away with it, Lydia. So please, come quietly. We don't want to use force."

"I do," snorted one of the armed men. The others sniggered with him.

"I don't," I clicked, frustrated. I tried sidestepping slowly to move around the shack.

"Nice try, prawn scum, but that won't help." Before I knew it, the barrel of a gun was pummelling against my skull. Another gun soon joined in and started clobbering the rest of my body. For all I knew, it could've been just the one human, but it was as painful as if all of them were assaulting me.

After several more beatings, the human without a gun finally stopped them from crushing me, though I had a distinct feeling it was only because he couldn't join in. While I was still lying on the ground, broken and defeated, they claw-cuffed me behind the back and threw me into one of their armoured vehicles.

And just like that, I was taken away from District 9. I wasn't sure where I was going, but what hurt the most was that I knew I wouldn't be able to see Christopher again and be with him when he goes back home.

--------------------

For the next three days, I sat in a cell, or more appropriately, a cage, a display box. To say it was small was a gross understatement. In the glass box of a cage, if I kneeled and wrapped my arms around myself, I could sit on the floor with more room. Through the glass, I watched as many of my kin were pulled to examination tables to be dissected and studied. It was sickening, hearing the experiments and torture.

However, I was surprised with myself that the maddening combination of the small cell and the screams of other non-humans did not make me lose sanity. I kept myself in check by doing several mathematical and scientific equations in my mind, as well as remembering Christopher and our dream of going home.

On the third day, someone opened the cage door and pulled me out. With the barrel of a shotgun pressed against the back of my neck, I was aggressively pushed down a hallway to a room with several paint cans. There was another non-human in there, and they forced us to stand with our arms raised above our heads.

They opened cans of white paint and covered our abdomens and backs with it. To dry the paint faster, they used heating objects which could be commonly related to household hairdryers. The heat was prickly and slightly painful, but I did not make any sounds that would give the human sadists the satisfaction of hurting me. To finish it off, they stroked two red X-marks on the white paint patches, both on the front and back.

Once more putting the guns to our heads, they herded us down a hallway and stopped us outside of a door. Inside, I heard the anguished cries of a human male along with weapon fire. I was shocked, not because of the screaming, but because of the sounds the weapons were giving off. They were distinct non-human weapons; I could recognize the charge up and firing noises.

One human jammed the butt of the barrel into the back of the other non-human. "Get in there, ya fucking prawn," he ordered, and roughly shoved him into the room. I caught a quick glimpse inside, and registered that there was a human male strapped down into a chair with a line up of non-human weapons on a rack beside him.

His left arm was mutated to claws like a non-human's claws. I shook my head and tried to look again, but the door closed already. _"How is that possible?! There is no way that the humans found a method to making a successful human/alien hybrid. Not with their mundane technology. Unless..."_

I was jerked from my thoughts when the human started screaming again. "NO! No, please, don't make me shoot the prawn! It didn't do anything!"

I darted towards the door and looked through the window. The humans had the weapon aimed towards the other non-human and they were going to force the mutant to shoot him.

"LET HIM GO!" I let out a ferocious roar and whipped around to the humans guarding me. "You fucking worthless _insects_! You have no right to do something this cruel! Let. Him. Fucking. GO!"

I reared my arms above my head, starting my assault, but a human brought out a device and rammed it against my body. An electrical current surged through me, which made me fall to my knees. I keeled over and spasmed violently.

The human guard laughed. "I never did like fried shrimp." He kicked me in the stomach.

The human inside started choking and begged the others. "Please, I'll shoot more pigs, just... don't make me shoot him."

I could faintly hear a zapping sound of a taser mixed with the mutant's screams. Soon after, an explosion was heard, and I knew they used the weapon against my kin. If it was the weapon I saw them attaching to the mutant earlier, then there would be chunks of alien flesh and blood everywhere in the next room.

I felt myself being picked up and pushed inside the room. They made me stand right where my predecessor had stood moments ago. I looked around the room, desperately trying to find a way out.

I saw the mutant strapped in his chair, sweat running down his entire body. He weakly looked up and saw me. His eyes widened and he started crying. "Please! I already killed one prawn... let this one go. I said I would shoot more pigs." The others paid no attention to his pleas as they started attaching another weapon.

The next weapon was one I was familiar with and I knew what it was made for. If the trigger is pulled, it would fire an electrical charge of 10, 000 volts, enough to kill the alien victim, but not char the body. Bodies are always useful, even in death. The taser used in the hallway tickles by comparison.

I had to get out. I couldn't die like a lab rat.

"Please," I clicked softly. "I have to leave. I can't die here. Not like this." Staring in the face of death, I had imagined I would be fierce and untamed, but it seems death casted a blanket of tranquility over me, telling me to peacefully accept her gift.

I looked at the mutant in the chair, and saw his suffering. "Please," I begged. "I have so much I still need to do."

The mutant's arm was strapped into the weapon, claws hanging over the trigger. He looked around and demanded, "Don't make me shoot this one too. Let me shoot the pigs instead! LET ME SHOOT THE FUCKING PIGS!"

Time slowed down, every detail of everything that was happening around me imprinted into my mind. I saw the taser move down onto the mutant, and I knew that the shock would force him to grip in the trigger in pain. The taser made contact with his bare chest. I saw the sparks momentarily fly, and the twisted agony on his face.

Most of all, I saw him grip the trigger with his mutant hand. The sparked charge flew towards me. I temporarily remember trembling from the electrical waves.

Then there was nothing.

* * *

**So, please send reviews. I'll accept negative reviews, but please at least be critical about it. I acknowledge Christopher may be a bit OOC.**

**Thanks to Scrunchy for helping me pick out Lydia's name and writing her death scene!**

**Now go read the epilogue!**


	2. Epilogue

"Christopher, this is it! Here's the canister!" Wikus smashed the glass and reached in for the silver canister, the key to getting back to the mothership.

Christopher paid no attention to him. His focus was on the body of an alien lying on top of a dissection table. He reached out uncertainly, as if he could not comprehend what he was seeing. "Lydia?" He brushed his claws against the cold face.

Gunshots zoomed past and Wikus shot at their attackers. "What the fuck are you doing?! Snap out of it, we have to go! Now!" More gunshots barely missed him. "Christopher!"

He suddenly became aware of what was happening and ducked down beside Wikus. "I have an idea to get out."

--------------------

Back in District 9, in the shack, Christopher told Wikus what he had on his mind. "You have to wait three years."

Wikus stared back wide-eyed. He couldn't believe it. "Three years? Three fucking _human _years?! No, we had a deal."

"I can't. I have to go back to my home planet and get help."

"No, no, no, no. You need to fix me. Fix _this_," Wikus screamed, pointing towards his arm. "You promised-"

"I made that promise before I knew the truth! I can't let humans use my kin as experiments..." Christopher turned his back towards Wikus and leaned against the shack's wall. "She wasn't supposed to die. She was supposed to be careful and survive, like always."

--------------------

Christopher set the mothership into autopilot and leaned back for a much desired break. His wounds still hurt, but the medical equipment would fix it soon enough. He just needed to catch his breath.

His little one crawled into his lap and looked up. "So, we're finally going home now, right, father?"

"Yes, young one, we're going home."

"Excellent! I can't wait to finally see it. I wish Lydia was here, though. She was always telling me how beautiful our planet is." He scurried off to explore the rest of the ship.

Christopher breathed uneasily, and he felt very shaken, as if the weight of the experiences from the last 20 years suddenly dropped on him. Images of Lydia flooded his mind, from times when she visited the shack, talked to his young one, and of her body at MNU.

He looked to his left and right, finding the emptiness almost suffocating.

"_It wasn't supposed to be like this. You're supposed to be here, sitting next to me, as we fly home. That was our plan!" _

Christopher shook his head, and let out a heartbreaking cry. After several minutes, he had a new goal.

"_The first night I get home, I'll stay outside and look up at the night sky. You and I will watch the 7 moons you loved so much. Together."_

The young one came back to the bridge. "Father, I'm glad we're going back home."

"Me too."


End file.
